


They Were His

by Janieohio



Series: IWSC Challenge Oneshots [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hogwarts Eighth Year, IWSC | The International Wizarding Schools Championship Writing Challenge, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24655447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janieohio/pseuds/Janieohio
Summary: Flitwick sees that both Harry and Draco need some help coping after the war, and as they're both back for a so-called eighth-year, he decides it's up to him to step in. Good thing he has a plan. Pre-Drarry.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: IWSC Challenge Oneshots [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1614058
Comments: 14
Kudos: 103





	They Were His

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all, I've joined the International Wizarding School Championship writing competition, and this story is my final entry for Season 2. To readers of my Harry/Draco series, this is NOT part of that universe, but it is pre-Drarry. Also, I'd like to take a moment this round and send special thanks to my amazing Beauxbatons teammates who have made this competition such an awesome experience. You've all made me a better writer, and I really look forward to next year's competition!

It was approximately three weeks into the new school year, the first since the Battle of Hogwarts and the end of the war, and Filius Flitwick was keeping a close eye on his so-called eighth-year students. These students, who had been through so much, who'd never had a normal term at Hogwarts, who had never known what a peaceful year of study could be like, _these_ children—strike that—these _young men and women_ who looked haunted and tired, they were _his_.

Some of them seemed to need more help than others. He watched as they paired off and leaned on one another as friends, lovers, confidants, finding comfort in each other and their shared experiences. But how would one find such comfort when there was no one who understood your experience; when you were set apart from everyone else?

Filius watched two young men whom no one seemed to see were lost, and his heart ached for them. The circumstances which set each apart were so drastically different, yet eerily similar. When the others looked at them, they only saw what they expected to see: a saviour, a villain; a hero, a coward. When Filius looked at them, he saw lost souls, looking for answers and comfort and silence.

Filius understood that search. He'd been there himself once upon a time, though he doubted even he could truly understand what these young men had been through. He wished he could go back and change things for them both—intervened somehow or offered assistance, perhaps—and allow them to retain some semblance of innocence.

Regret was useless, however, and he could only work with the future. To that end, he'd been working up a plan in his head since the beginning of term. What he'd needed was a _strategy_ —one that offered a way to get both students involved in something outside their own heads; a way to get them active; a way to offer them support—and he was confident in his decided approach.

He looked out over the class and noticed the scruffy, dark-haired Gryffindor slouched in his chair staring off into the void, and the stiff, blond-haired Slytherin, diligently writing and attempting to avoid the attention of those around him. It was time, Filius decided, to put his plans into action. The students began packing their things to leave the classroom, and Filius spoke up. "Mr Potter and Mr Malfoy, please remain for a few moments."

Harry looked confused but nodded to his friends as they left the room. Draco's face was harder to read, but Filius was sure he noticed a tensing of the shoulders as he approached.

The Charms professor attempted to give them both a gentle smile as he hopped up to sit on the edge of his desk. He was rarely so informal with the students and hoped it'd put them at ease.

"Gentlemen, thank you for staying. I was wondering if the two of you could assist me a little." Draco's eyes narrowed slightly, but Harry's face remained curious and unsure. "I'm considering getting back into the duelling circuit. There's a new league forming, made up of many of my older colleagues. In order for me even to consider such a thing, I feel the need to get a good deal of practice first. You are both quite good, though a bit limited in your repertoire of choice spells."

Draco shot a sideways smirk at Harry, but Harry simply rolled his eyes and let out a little laugh. _Good,_ he thought. _I can work with that._

"My proposition for you is that you both offer up a couple of hours of your time each week to help me, and in return, I'll help you with your duelling charms. Since you have NEWTs this year, I'll make sure to include items that I know you both need to work on for your examinations, so you can consider it study time."

Draco looked intrigued, and Filius focused on him more intently. From this distance, Filius could see the slight discolouration under the grey eyes, betraying the blond's lack of sleep.

"I suppose I can see the benefit in that, sir," Draco began. "When did you have in mind, and is there anything specific you'd like me to work on before our first session?"

"No, no, nothing to work on, Mr Malfoy. Do you mind if I call you Draco for these sessions?"

"No, sir, of course not."

"Wonderful, Draco. We'll figure out a time that suits everyone's timetable. Mr Potter?"

He looked to the dark-haired young man whose presence seemed to fill the room—he'd seemed to do that even as a first-year—and met the pair of intense green eyes that reminded him so much of the boy's mother. He ignored the twinge in his heart at her memory and waited.

"I don't know, Professor. I'm rather tired of fighting."

Filius's throat felt thick at the admission, but he nodded solemnly. "I understand, but this isn't fighting. It's duelling. Consider it a sport; it's just exercise. No animosity, no fear, just strategy and skill. It's like a game of chess, but with wands."

He watched Harry consider that, then glance at Draco. "Draco," Harry said, surprising Filius with the use of the Slytherin's first name, "do you have any objection to me doing this with you? I can't fight. I don't have it in me, so if you have any reason not to want me to do this, please say so."

Draco opened his mouth, clearly trying to decide what to say, then finally closed it and gave a quick nod. "I agree. No fighting, just duelling." He put out his hand as if offering something more than a simple handshake, and Filius watched Harry's mouth twitch into a small smile as he took the hand and gave it a firm shake.

Harry looked back to Filius. "Thank you, Professor. I'll do it, and yes, you can call me Harry."

Filius chuckled; he'd thought of the boy as Harry in his head for years anyway. "Wonderful, Harry. Thank you. Would Thursday evenings after dinner work for you both?"

Both young men nodded their assent. _Perfect._

* * *

"Now, in order to train well, we'll need to establish a level of trust between us." Filius had finished working with the boys on their warm-ups. Luckily, they'd both been Quidditch players long enough that it didn't seem to surprise them, and they worked quietly alongside him. "We can't have tense silence in these sessions and still make good progress. I'd like us each to share a personal story each time, something we don't normally talk about, but which is on our minds. Bringing it out into the open can be cathartic, and it'll give you a better understanding of your opponent."

Harry stiffened, his jaw clenching while Draco stook a step back and glanced at Harry through narrowed eyes. Unsurprised at their responses, Filius gave a grim nod. "If you would prefer it, I'll also cast a secrecy spell so nothing will leave this room. Is that better?"

Harry sighed. "Sorry, Professor, but yeah, that's better. It's not that I don't trust—"

"It's understandable," Filius interrupted. "Draco?"

"Yes, sir."

"Wonderful. Now, I'll start. As you've both probably surmised over the years, I'm part Goblin. What isn't commonly known, however, is that my great-grandfather came from a prestigious Goblin line and disowned my grandmother for her choices and disobedience to the family. So while I have Goblin blood, I was raised entirely human and am mostly unwelcome among the Goblins."

Draco nodded. "I suppose the Goblins are not very different from pure-bloods, then, sir."

"No, they're not, and it made for a difficult time growing up." He heaved a little sigh. "Okay, I'd like to get to duelling, so you both need to take a turn."

Harry looked reluctant, but Draco squared his shoulders and gave a curt nod. "I've been promised to Astoria Greengrass since she was born," he began. "With my father in Azkaban, I finally told my mother this summer that she should cancel the engagement, as I'm not interested in marrying."

Harry made a little noise and drew Draco's attention. "Ever?"

Draco shrugged. "Well, I'm not interested in ever marrying a _witch_."

Harry looked unsure what to say to that, and Filius decided to fill the awkward silence. "I'm pleased that you decided to do what makes you happy, Draco. That had to be difficult." He waited, then continued. "Harry?"

Harry sighed. "I don't want to be an Auror."

"And you haven't told anyone that?" Filius smiled encouragingly.

Harry shook his head. "No. Everyone seems to expect it, but I just…I just can't."

Filius opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted.

"That's possibly the first smart decision I've ever seen you make, Potter. Good for you." Draco smirked at the Gryffindor.

Harry gave an uncomfortable laugh and nodded. "Yeah."

_Small steps,_ Filius thought. _They're taking small steps, and that's all right._ Now that that hurdle was passed, he simply had to wear them both out so completely they'd sleep easily that night, and with that thought, he began the duelling lesson.

* * *

Six weeks of lessons later, the three of them had a routine, and all had come to enjoy it. Their " _Hufflepuff Moments of Sharing",_ as Draco sarcastically called them, now took place during their warm-ups.

"So why did you break up with the Weaslette, Harry?" Draco asked as he did his side-stretches.

"We didn't break up. We never really got back together after the war. We wanted different things. But she's still one of my best friends, so lay off the Weaslette shite."

Filius smiled. "That's very mature of you both. It's important to understand that compatibility is about more than just chemistry, but also about what you want out of life."

"Yeah," Harry said as he huffed through a calf stretching exercise, then paused and appeared to make a decision. "Plus, we both like blokes."

Not wholly surprised, since he'd been watching the two young men eyeing one another over the previous month, Filius let out a little chuckle. "That could be a definite conflict of interests."

"That's for sure," Draco said under a cough.

"What, you're not going to mock me?" Harry asked, his voice full of challenge.

Filius almost wished he could sit down with a snack and watch this play out, but instead, he just kept to his warm-up routine.

"Mock that you have the good sense to favour men? Unlikely, as that's why I called off my engagement. Besides, it's not all that uncommon."

Harry paused, staring at Draco in disbelief.

"What?"

"What _what_?" Draco raised an eyebrow. "Oh, come on. You're not telling me that's something that those Muggles you grew up with had a problem with. Even _they_ can't be that backward."

Filius cleared his throat. "You really should have taken Muggle Studies, Mr Malfoy." He turned to Harry. "Yes, Harry, it's generally accepted in the Wizarding World. Didn't Miss Weasley explain that?"

"Not really. I only thought…well, you know the Weasleys. They're pretty accepting of everybody, right? I figured that was why. I haven't really told all the others. I was, uh, afraid to, and I really had just figured it out myself this past summer." He looked extremely uncomfortable.

Filius nodded. "I recommend you tell your friends. You shouldn't have to hide who you are, Harry."

Harry nodded, and Draco snorted.

"What?" Harry asked, the accusation audible in his voice.

Draco shook his head as he got up to walk to the duelling area. "I'm just imagining Granger. She's going to find you every book available on being a gay wizard. I hope you're ready."

Harry laughed, and Filius joined in. This was going really well.

* * *

This was going terribly.

"You can't just tell lies like that!"

"I'm not lying! Why the hell would I make up something like that?"

"Potter, you did _not_ sleep in a cupboard as a child. Everyone knows you were raised by your rich family and pampered."

"Right, everyone knows so bloody much, don't they? If I was rich and pampered, why do you think I showed up in Diagon Alley in torn-up clothes two sizes too big for me?"

Draco spluttered. "Because that was Muggle fashion! I've seen them walking down the streets of London with their trousers hanging down and their shirts absolutely huge! No one would treat a child the way you're saying, especially not the bloody Boy-Who-Lived. I always knew you were a liar, but I thought we'd moved beyond that."

Filius decided it was past time to step in. "Draco, we've been very honest in this room. I don't think Harry would—"

"To hell with you, Malfoy. Here I was, thinking you were actually human, thinking you were becoming a friend. I told you something I've not even told Ron and Hermione, something that actually _means_ something, and you call me a bloody liar. I've got better things to do than—"

"That's enough!"

The boys—for that's what they were acting like now, _children_ —stopped, amazed to see him lose his temper. _Good._

"We're clearly not duelling in this mood, so you two are going to sit down, and we're going to work through this." He was met with two scowls and returned one of his own. He stared them down until they both took a seat on the side of the duelling stage. "Right. Now, Draco, I want you to remember Harry at the beginning of his first year. I want you to really picture him for a moment."

He paused, watching Draco let out a huge huff of frustration but then begin to cooperate. Harry shifted uncomfortably and turned pleading eyes onto Filius. Filius's heart broke a little at the pain he knew Harry must have gone through as a child and the discomfort he was experiencing now having to relive it in such a way, but it was important. It was important for Harry to be able to talk about it, and it was important for Draco to understand.

Filius moved his eyes back to Draco, taking a moment to remember the young boy with white-blond hair slicked back from his face that still showed the roundness of youth. The young man in front of him now was sharp angles and a shadowed jaw; the signs of worry and fatigue Filius had seen upon his face four months earlier had all but disappeared. Draco had led a privileged childhood, if a difficult adolescence, and it was important for him to consider other possibilities outside his own realm of experience.

Without urging, Harry spoke, surprising Filius. "As I said, my bedroom growing up was the cupboard under the stairs. My relatives—not my family, as I consider the Weasleys my family—were cruel. They didn't like magic, and though they refused to acknowledge it even existed, they treated me viciously because of it. I was often hungry, usually lonely, and the clothes you saw were my cousin's cast-offs. The first time I had clothes of my own was when I bought them the day we first met in Diagon Alley, Malfoy. That was my eleventh birthday, and it was the day I first learned about the magical world."

Filius sat quietly. He'd assumed some of this from things he'd observed or heard from Hagrid over the years, but it still horrified him that this had been the child's fate. Lily Evans, who'd meant so much to him as a teacher: her son had been consigned to such a childhood.

Draco seemed to find his voice. "Did they hurt you?"

Harry let out a harsh laugh. "Not really. Dudley did a few times, but I think they couldn't really be bothered."

Filius watched the Slytherin turn, searching out Harry's eyes. "So you didn't lie?" The regret in his voice was audible. "And then you met me in Madam Malkin's, and I was a right arse to you."

Harry let out a sad little laugh. "Yeah, well, you were a right arse to everyone back then. Guess some things never change, right?"

Draco let out a little snort. "Wanker."

Harry laughed, and this time it reached his eyes. "Often. So, are we okay then?"

Draco nodded. "Yes. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry for how I treated you, both back then and today. You didn't deserve either."

Harry shrugged. "Apology accepted. Now, I've shown you mine. It's time to show me your big bad secret."

Filius smothered a laugh at the innuendo, watching Harry's eyes sparkle in mirth. Merlin, it was good to see.

"Well," Draco drawled, "I suppose I could tell you that the reason I gave you such a hard time back then was that I was jealous."

"What?" Harry practically yelled, but Filius just grinned. All of the professors had known this fact—it was hardly a secret—but it seemed to meet the definition for Harry.

Draco shifted uncomfortably, still watching Harry. They appeared to have forgotten Filius was even in the room—an occurrence that happened often. "I was jealous. I was jealous of the attention you received, and I was really jealous that you wanted to be Weasley's friend and not mine. So I decided I'd be your enemy if I couldn't be your friend."

"Enemy?" Harry said with a grin.

"Arch-enemy?"

"Hardly. Voldemort, remember?"

Draco cringed. "Right. Nemesis?"

Harry cocked his head, considering. "Yeah, that works." He grinned. "And now?"

Draco stood quickly and cleared his throat. "Guess we'll just have to figure that out. So can we duel now?"

* * *

"I didn't know what the curse did." Harry sat on the floor, his hands hooked around his foot as he stretched.

"You cast a curse marked 'for enemies', and didn't know what it did?" Draco asked from where he stood with his arms stretched over his head.

Harry was silent, and Filius wanted to give him a hundred detentions for such a stupid act. Instead, he held his tongue and watched.

Draco sneered. "Guess I should be grateful there wasn't one marked 'for a nemesis'. Who knows what would have happened?"

Harry let out a tense laugh, then looked serious. "I regretted it the moment it hit you. I had no idea. And then so much happened, and I didn't know _what_ to think."

"Yes, well, I think it's clear that I have enough regrets of my own from those few months, so let's just leave those, shall we?"

Filius cleared his throat. "Draco, why don't you tell us a bit about what happened that year? It's not healthy to keep it all inside."

Draco scowled and pulled his arm across his body, but nodded. "Fine. If you think it's important. We've already talked about my Mark. It was shortly after that that I was given the choice to fulfil the task _He_ set me or to watch him kill my mother. Oh, it wasn't stated like that, but Aunt Bella made sure I understood with crystal clarity."

Harry made a noise that sounded like a wounded animal, and Filius and Draco both looked at him. "You had to choose to kill Dumbledore or watch him kill your mother?"

"Yes, Potter. What, did you think I did it because I was promised ice cream as a treat?" Draco's voice was scathing, but Filius could hear the pain in it.

"I don't know what I thought," Harry said quietly. "God, I'm so sorry. I wish I could have done something; maybe helped you figure out another option, a third choice."

"It's over. It doesn't matter anymore."

"Yes, it does. It matters, Draco." Harry stood up and walked to the other man, and Filius held his breath, waiting to see what would happen.

"It matters. It matters to you; it matters to your experience; and it matters to me that you went through all that and you still chose to lower your wand up on the Astronomy Tower." His vibrant green eyes searched Draco's. "It matters."

Filius sat completely still and silent, refusing to remind them of his presence. After what felt like several minutes, Draco nodded.

"Yeah, it matters."

* * *

"Professor?"

Filius looked up from where he was marking a pile of third-year final examinations and smiled when he saw Harry and Draco standing in the doorway. Standing _very close_ to one another in the doorway, actually.

"Come in, come in!" He motioned for the young men to have a seat on the chairs at the other side of his desk. "Well, how do you think you did on your NEWTs?"

Harry shrugged, and Draco straightened his shoulders. Filius laughed at their predictable gestures.

"I believe I did well; thank you, sir."

Harry's voice was less certain. "I'm pretty sure I did all right on the practicals, though I'm not sure about the Potions and Transfiguration written tests."

Draco rolled his eyes. "You knew that information inside and out, Harry. You did fine. You need to stop listening to Hermione recite every question. It's stressing you out."

Filius laughed, having heard Miss Granger do precisely that many times over her school career. "I agree with Draco. I think you were well prepared. And since you are both graduating next week," he said with a smile he hoped conveyed his pride in them both, "you are no longer my students. I would be honoured if you'd call me Filius from now on."

Harry and Draco glanced at each other, communicating something in a look that convinced Filius that their relationship had indeed progressed as he'd thought it might. Finally, after several moments of that silent communication, Draco nodded, and they both turned to Filius.

"Professor… er, I mean Filius, we want to thank you, sir. For everything."

"Smooth, Potter," Draco interrupted. "Professor, we know that you didn't really need help with your duelling this year. We want to say thank you for taking an interest in us, and for getting us to talk and, well, helping us...heal, I suppose."

"Smooth, Malfoy," Harry said with a mocking laugh. "As I said, thank you for everything, Professor. _Filius_."

Filius felt his eyes burn slightly and gave them his biggest smile. "You're quite welcome. I've truly enjoyed getting to know you better and to see you both heal and grow. It's been my pleasure." He cleared his throat. "Besides, I don't know what you're talking about. My duelling tournament starts in two weeks in Stockholm, and I'm going to kick Marty's arse."

"Professor!" Harry laughed.

"Filius," he corrected. "Come on, gentlemen. I believe we have dinner to get to."

Filius walked out the door, turning slightly to see the young men following him. They were still _his_ , but now they were his friends, and that was a remarkable thing.

* * *

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Competition Prompts:   
> Main Prompt: [Character] Filius Flitwick  
> Additional Prompts: [Emotion] Regret, [Dialogue] "You can't just tell lies like that."


End file.
